Pilot design for wireless system

ABSTRACT

The description herein relates to pilot designs for an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based communication system. In at least one embodiment, the communication system is one operating according to the IEEE 802.16m, or WiMax, standard. In general, an OFDM transmitter operates to insert pilot symbols into a resource of a transmit frame according to a predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern defining pilot symbol locations within the resource of the transmit frame. The predetermined pilot symbol pattern is defined such that pilot symbols are located at or near time boundaries of the resource, at or near frequency boundaries of the resource, or both. By doing so, when generating a channel estimate for the communication channel between the OFDM transmitter and an OFDM receiver based on the pilot symbols, extrapolations needed to estimate the channel near the boundaries of the resource are optimized, thereby improving overall channel estimation accuracy.

RELATED APPLICATIONS Claim of Priority

This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S.application Ser. No. 14/548,200 filed Nov. 19, 2014 where the latter isa continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 14/027,034, filed Sep. 13, 2013; Ser. No. 14/027,034 is acontinuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/476,242 filed May 21, 2012. Ser. No. 13/476,242 is a divisional of,and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/397,723filed Mar. 4, 2009. Application Ser. No. 12/397,723 claims the benefitof provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/033,637, filed Mar. 4,2008, and provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/036,737, filed Mar.14, 2008, the disclosures of which said applications are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

Multiple Input Multiple Output-Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) is a novel highly spectral efficient technologyused to transmit high-speed data through radio channels with fast fadingboth in frequency and in time.

In wireless communication systems that employ OFDM, a transmittertransmits data to a receiver using many sub-carriers in parallel. Thefrequencies of the sub-carriers are orthogonal. Transmitting the data inparallel allows symbols containing the data to be of longer duration,which reduces the effects of multi-path fading. The orthogonality of thefrequencies allows the sub-carriers to be tightly spaced, whileminimizing inter-carrier interference. At the transmitter, the data isencoded, interleaved, and modulated to form data symbols. Overheadinformation, including pilot symbols, is added and the symbols (dataplus overhead) are organized into OFDM symbols. Each OFDM symboltypically uses 2^(n) frequencies. Each symbol is allocated to representa component of a different orthogonal frequency. An inverse Fast FourierTransform (IFFT) is applied to the OFDM symbol to generate time samplesof a signal. Cyclic extensions are added to the signal, and the signalis passed through a digital-to-analog converter. Finally, thetransmitter transmits the signal to the receiver along a channel.

When the receiver receives the signal, the inverse operations areperformed. The received signal is passed through an analog-to-digitalconverter, and timing information is then determined. The cyclicextensions are removed from the signal. The receiver performs an FFT onthe received signal to recover the frequency components of the signal,that is, the data symbols. Error correction may be applied to the datasymbols to compensate for variations in phase and amplitude causedduring propagation of the signal along the channel. The data symbols arethen demodulated, de-interleaved, and decoded to yield the transmitteddata.

In systems employing differential detection, the receiver compares thephase and/or amplitude of each received symbol with an adjacent symbol.The adjacent symbol may be adjacent in the time direction or in thefrequency direction. The receiver recovers the transmitted data bymeasuring the change in phase and/or amplitude between a symbol and theadjacent symbol. If differential detection is used, channel compensationneed not be applied to compensate for variations in phase and amplitudecaused during propagation of the signal. However, in systems employingcoherent detection the receiver must estimate the actual phase andamplitude of the channel response, and channel compensation must beapplied.

The variations in phase and amplitude resulting from propagation alongthe channel are referred to as the channel response. The channelresponse is usually frequency and time dependent. If the receiver candetermine the channel response, the received signal can be corrected tocompensate for the channel degradation. The determination of the channelresponse is called channel estimation. The inclusion of pilot symbols ineach OFDM symbol allows the receiver to carry out channel estimation.The pilot symbols are transmitted with a value known to the receiver.When the receiver receives the OFDM symbol, the receiver compares thereceived value of the pilot symbols with the known transmitted value ofthe pilot symbols to estimate the channel response.

The pilot symbols are overhead, and should be as few in number aspossible in order to maximize the transmission rate of data symbols.Since the channel response can vary with time and with frequency, thepilot symbols are staggered amongst the data symbols to provide ascomplete a range as possible of channel response over time andfrequency. The set of sub-carriers in frequency and time at which pilotsymbols are inserted is referred to as a pilot pattern. The optimaltemporal spacing between the pilot symbols is usually dictated by themaximum anticipated Doppler frequency, and the optimal frequency spacingbetween the pilot symbols is usually dictated by the anticipated delayspread of multi-path fading.

In OFDM communication systems employing coherent modulation anddemodulation, the receiver must estimate the channel response at thefrequencies of all sub-carriers and at all times. Although this requiresmore processing than in systems that employ differential modulation anddemodulation, a significant gain in signal-to-noise ratio can beachieved using coherent modulation and demodulation. The receiverdetermines the channel response at the times and frequencies at whichpilot symbols are inserted into the OFDM symbol, and estimates thechannel response at the times and frequencies at which the data symbolsare located within the OFDM symbol using interpolation andextrapolation. Placing pilot symbols more closely together within apilot pattern results in a more accurate channel estimation. However,because pilot symbols are overhead, a tighter pilot pattern is at theexpense of the transmitted data rate.

One issue with pilot patterns is that extrapolation is typically neededto estimate the channel response at sub-carriers at or near resourceboundaries in frequency and in time. As is commonly known, extrapolationprovides lower quality, or less accurate, results than interpolation.Therefore, there is a need for improved pilot designs that optimize, byadjusting or reducing or all together eliminating, the need forextrapolation when generating an estimate of the channel response.

SUMMARY OF THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The description herein relates to pilot designs for an OrthogonalFrequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based communication system. Insome embodiments, the communication system is one operating according tothe IEEE 802.16m, or advanced WiMax, standard. In general, an OFDMtransmitter operates to insert pilot symbols into a resource of atransmit frame according to a predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern defining pilot symbol locations within the resource of thetransmit frame. The predetermined pilot symbol pattern is defined suchthat pilot symbols are located at or near time boundaries of theresource, at or near frequency boundaries of the resource, or both. Bydoing so, when generating a channel estimate for the communicationchannel between the OFDM transmitter and an OFDM receiver based on thepilot symbols, extrapolations needed to estimate the channel near theboundaries of the resource are optimized. As a result, an overallaccuracy of the channel estimate is substantially improved. The resourceof the transmit frame may be one or more sub-frames of the transmitframe or a resource unit within the transmit frame.

In some embodiments, a downlink frame includes one or more sub-frames,and the OFDM transmitter operates to insert pilot symbols into the oneor more sub-frames of the downlink frame according to a predeterminedstaggered pilot symbol pattern defining pilot symbol locations with theone or more sub-frames of the downlink frame. The predeterminedstaggered pilot symbol pattern may be a function of the number ofsub-frames in the downlink frame. At times, the inserted pilot symbolsare common pilot symbols. In one embodiment, the predetermined staggeredpilot symbol pattern for the one or more sub-frames is defined such thatthe pilot symbol locations in the last sub-frame of the downlink frameare adjusted such that there are pilot symbol locations at or near anending time boundary of the last sub-frame of the downlink frame. Inaddition, the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern for the oneor more sub-frames may be defined such that the adjusted pilot symbollocations in the last sub-frame remain substantially uniform withrespect to the pilot symbol locations in the other sub-frames of thedownlink frame. In another embodiment, the predetermined staggered pilotsymbol pattern for the one or more sub-frames is defined such that thepilot symbol locations in the first sub-frame of the downlink frame areadjusted such that there are pilot symbol locations at or near astarting time boundary of the first sub-frame of the downlink frame. Inaddition, the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern may bedefined such that the pilot symbol locations in the first sub-frameremain substantially uniform with respect to the pilot symbol locationsin the other sub-frames of the downlink frame.

In some embodiments, a downlink frame includes one or more legacysub-frames and a number of modern (e.g., IEEE 802.16m) sub-frames. Jointchannel estimation for the modern sub-frames is provided based on pilotsin the modern sub-frames and pilots in one of the legacy sub-framesneighboring the modern sub-frames. In some cases, the pilot symbolsinserted into the modern sub-frames are common pilot symbols. Morespecifically, in one embodiment, the OFDM transmitter operates to insertpilot symbols into the number of modern sub-frames of the downlink frameaccording to a predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern definingpilot symbol locations within the number of modern sub-frames. In thecase where the last legacy sub-frame precedes the first modernsub-frame, because the pilots from the last legacy sub-frame are usedfor joint channel estimation, there is no need for the predeterminedstaggered pilot symbol pattern for the number of modern sub-frames toinclude pilot symbol locations at or near the starting time boundary ofthe first modern sub-frame. As a result, the staggered pilot symbolpattern may begin at a time offset from the starting time boundary ofthe first modern sub-frame. The predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern may be uniform, and the time offset may be such that thepredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern ends with pilot symbollocations at or near an ending time boundary of the last modernsub-frame in the downlink frame.

In some embodiments, an OFDM component of a transmitter operates toinsert pilot symbols into one or more sub-frames of a downlink frameaccording to a predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern includingbasic pilot symbol locations and additional boundary pilot symbollocations. In one embodiment, the basic pilot symbol locations define abasic pilot symbol pattern that is uniform. The boundary pilot symbollocations are pilot symbol locations in addition to the basic pilotsymbol locations and are at or near time boundaries of the one or moresub-frames, at or near frequency boundaries of the one or moresub-frames, or both.

In some embodiments, a pilot symbol pattern defining locations in whichpilot symbols are to be inserted into a resource unit is a function of asize of the resource unit. As used herein, a resource unit is one ormore contiguous blocks of symbol locations, which may be referred to oneor more contiguous resource blocks. In some embodiments, a density ofthe pilot symbol pattern is a function of the size of the resource unit.The size of the resource unit may be defined as a number of resourceblocks in the resource unit. More specifically, the OFDM transmitteroperates to insert pilot symbols into a resource unit of a transmitframe according to a predetermined pilot symbol pattern defining pilotsymbol locations within the resource unit, where the predetermined pilotsymbol pattern is a function of a size of the resource unit. In oneembodiment, the predetermined pilot symbol pattern for the resource unitis a predetermined pilot symbol pattern for a resource unit of the samesize of the resource unit in the transmit frame. Alternately oradditionally, the predetermined pilot symbol pattern includes pilotsymbol locations at or near each time boundary of the resource unit, ator near each frequency boundary of the resource unit, or both.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of variousembodiments and realize additional aspects thereof after reading thefollowing detailed description in association with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of thisspecification illustrate several aspects of one or more embodiments, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of variousembodiments.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) transmitter according to one embodiment of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an OFDM receiver according to oneembodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary radio frame including a downlink frameand an uplink frame;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the pilot inserterof the OFDM transmitter of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of thisdisclosure;

FIGS. 5A through 5J illustrate exemplary pilot symbol patterns that maybe utilized by the pilot inserter according to the process of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator of the OFDM receiver of FIG. 2 according to one embodiment ofthis disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the pilot inserterof the OFDM transmitter of FIG. 1 to insert pilot symbols for jointchannel estimation according to another embodiment of this disclosure;

FIGS. 8A through 8E illustrate exemplary pilot symbol patterns that maybe utilized by the pilot inserter according to the process of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 illustrates the operation of the channel estimator of the OFDMreceiver of FIG. 2 to perform joint channel estimation according toanother embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the pilot inserterof the OFDM transmitter of FIG. 1 according to another embodiment ofthis disclosure;

FIGS. 11A through 11F illustrate exemplary pilot symbol patterns thatmay be utilized by the pilot inserter according to the process of FIG.10;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator of the OFDM receiver of FIG. 2 according to another embodimentof this disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the pilot inserterof the OFDM transmitter of FIG. 1 according to another embodiment ofthis disclosure;

FIGS. 14A through 14H illustrate exemplary pilot symbol patterns thatmay be utilized by the pilot inserter according to the process of FIG.13;

FIGS. 15A and 15B graphically illustrate the design of exemplary pilotsymbol patterns that may be used for pilot insertion according to theprocess of FIG. 13;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator of the OFDM receiver of FIG. 2 according to another embodimentof this disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the pilot inserterof the OFDM transmitter of FIG. 1 according to another embodiment ofthis disclosure;

FIGS. 18A and 18B illustrate exemplary modern resource blocks;

FIG. 19 illustrates exemplary pilot symbol patterns for the resourceblock of FIG. 18A;

FIG. 20 illustrates exemplary pilot symbol patterns for the resourceblock of FIG. 18B; and

FIG. 21 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator of the OFDM receiver of FIG. 2 according to another embodimentof this disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The descriptions set forth below represent information to enable thoseskilled in the art to practice and illustrate various aspects of one ormore embodiments. Upon reading the following description in light of theaccompanying drawings, those skilled in the art will various aspects ofone or more embodiments, and will recognize applications of theseconcepts not particularly addressed herein. It should be understood thatthese concepts and applications fall within the scope of the disclosureand the accompanying claims.

The following description relates to an Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) transmitter/receiver and various staggered pilotinsertion schemes. By way of introduction, an OFDM frame consists ofpreamble OFDM symbols and regular OFDM symbols. Each OFDM symbol uses aset of orthogonal sub-carriers. Thus, an OFDM frame can be thought of asa two-dimensional grid of symbol locations in frequency (i.e.,sub-carrier frequencies) and in time (i.e., OFDM symbol time slots).

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output(MIMO) OFDM transmitter 10 (hereinafter the “OFDM transmitter 10”). Notethat while much of the discussion below focuses on a MIMO transmitterand a MIMO receiver, the concepts discussed herein are also applicableto Single-Input-Single-Output (SISO) OFDM transmitters and receivers.The OFDM transmitter 10 shown in FIG. 1 is a two-output OFDMtransmitter, though more generally there may be a plurality of Mtransmitting antenna. The OFDM transmitter 10 takes binary data as inputbut data in other forms may be accommodated. The binary data is passedto a coding/modulation primitive 12 responsible for encoding,interleaving, and modulating the binary data to generate data symbols,as is well known to those skilled in the art. The coding/modulationprimitive 12 may include a number of processing blocks, not shown inFIG. 1. An encoder 14 applies Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) to the datasymbols. The encoder 14 also separates the data symbols into a firstprocessing path 16 and a second processing path 18, by sending alternatedata symbols along each of the two processing paths. In the more generalcase in which the OFDM transmitter 10 includes M transmitting antennae,the encoder 14 separates the data symbols into M processing paths.

The data symbols sent along the first processing path 16 are sent to afirst OFDM component 20. The data symbols are first passed to ademultiplexer 22 in the first OFDM component 20, after which the datasymbols are treated as sub-carrier components. The data symbols are thensent to a pilot inserter 24, where pilot symbols are inserted among thedata symbols. Collectively, the data symbols and pilot symbols arereferred to hereinafter simply as symbols. The symbols are passed to anInverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) processor 26, then to amultiplexer (MUX) 28 where they are recombined into a serial stream. Aguard inserter 30 adds prefixes to the symbols. Finally, the symbols arepassed through a hard limiter 32, a digital-to-analog converter 34, anda radio frequency (RF) transmitter 36 which transmits symbols as asignal through a first transmitting antenna 38. In most embodiments,each element in the first OFDM component 20 is a processor, a componentof a larger processor, or a collection of processors or any suitablecombination of hardware, firmware, and software. These might includegeneral purpose processors, Application Specific Integrated Circuits(ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), or Digital SignalProcessors (DSPs), to name a few examples.

The pilot inserter 24 is connected to receive space-time coded pilotsymbols from a pilot STBC function 40 which performs STBC on pilotsymbols 42. The pilot STBC function 40 takes two pilot symbols 42 at atime, for example P1 and P2 as indicated in FIG. 1, and generates anSTBC block consisting of a two by two matrix having (P1, P2) in thefirst row and having (−P2*, P1*) in the second row. It is the first rowof this STBC block that is inserted by the pilot inserter 24.

The data symbols sent along the second processing path 18 are sent to asecond OFDM component 44, which includes processors similar to thoseincluded in the first OFDM component 20. However, a pilot inserter 46inserts encoded pilot symbols from the second row of the STBC blockproduced by the pilot STBC function 40. The symbols sent along thesecond processing path 18 are ultimately transmitted as a signal througha second transmitting antenna 48.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a MIMO-OFDM receiver 50 (hereinafterthe “OFDM receiver 50”). The OFDM receiver 50 includes a first receivingantenna 52 and a second receiving antenna 54 (although more generallythere will be one or more receiving antenna). The first receivingantenna 52 receives a first received signal. The first received signalis a combination of the two signals transmitted by the two transmittingantennae 38 and 48 of the OFDM transmitter 10 of FIG. 1, although eachof the two signals will have been altered by a respective channelbetween the respective transmitting antenna and the first receivingantenna 52. The second receiving antenna 54 receives a second receivedsignal. The second received signal is a combination of the two signalstransmitted by the two transmitting antennae 38 and 48 of the OFDMtransmitter 10 of FIG. 1, although each of the two signals will havebeen altered by a respective channel between the respective transmittingantenna and the second receiving antenna 54. The four channels betweeneach of the two transmitting antennae 38 and 48 and each of the tworeceiving antennae 52 and 54 may vary with time and with frequency, andwill usually be different from each other.

The OFDM receiver 50 includes a first OFDM component 56 and a secondOFDM component 58 (although in general there will be N OFDM components,one for each receiving antenna). The first OFDM component 56 includes anRF receiver 59 and an analog-to-digital converter 60, which converts thefirst received signal into digital signal samples. The signal samplesare passed to a frequency synchronizer 62 and a frequency offsetcorrector 64. The signal samples are also fed to a frame/timesynchronizer 66. Collectively, these three components producesynchronized signal samples.

The synchronized signal samples represent a time sequence of data. Thesynchronized signal samples are passed to a demultiplexer 68 and thenpassed in parallel to a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processor 70. TheFFT processor 70 performs an FFT on the signal samples to generateestimated received symbols which are multiplexed in a multiplexer (MUX)72 and sent as received symbols to a decoder 74. Ideally, the receivedsymbols would be the same as the symbols fed into the IFFT processor 26at the OFDM transmitter 10 (FIG. 1). However, as the received signalswill have likely been altered by the various propagation channels, thefirst OFDM component 56 must correct the received symbols by taking intoaccount the channels. The received symbols are passed to a channelestimator 76, which analyzes received pilot symbols located at knowntimes and frequencies within the OFDM frame. By comparing the receivedpilot symbols with expected pilot symbols known to be transmitted by theOFDM transmitter 10 and using known interpolation and, if needed,extrapolation techniques, the channel estimator 76 generates anestimated channel response for each frequency and time within the OFDMsymbol. The estimated channel responses are passed to the decoder 74.

The second OFDM component 58 includes similar components as are includedin the first OFDM component 56, and processes the second received signalin the same manner as the first OFDM component 56 processes the firstreceived signal. Each of the OFDM components 56 and 58 passes OFDMsymbols to the decoder 74.

The decoder 74 applies STBC decoding to the OFDM symbols, and passes thesymbols to a decoding/demodulating primitive 78 responsible fordecoding, de-interleaving, and demodulating the symbols to generateoutput binary data, as is well known to those skilled in the art. Thedecoding/demodulation primitive 78 may include a number of additionalprocessing blocks, which are not shown in FIG. 2. Each element in theOFDM components 56 and 58 is implemented as a processor, a component ofa larger processor, or a collection of processors.

FIG. 3 illustrates a Time Division Duplex (TDD) frame structure for IEEE802.16m having legacy support. As illustrated, the frame structure is a5 millisecond (ms) radio frame structure including a downlink frame andan uplink frame. The downlink frame includes a number of downlinksub-frames. In this exemplary frame structure having Time DivisionMultiplexing (TDM) legacy support, the downlink frame includes a legacypreamble downlink sub-frame, a legacy downlink sub-frame, and a modern,or IEEE 802.16m, downlink sub-frame. Note that while the downlink frameof FIG. 3 includes one legacy downlink sub-frame and one modern downlinksub-frame, the downlink frame may include one or more legacy downlinksub-frames and one or more modern downlink sub-frames. The uplink frameincludes a legacy uplink sub-frame and a modern, or IEEE 802.16m, uplinksub-frame. Again, while the uplink frame of FIG. 3 includes one legacyuplink sub-frame and one modern uplink sub-frame, the uplink frame mayinclude one or more legacy uplink sub-frames and one or more modernuplink sub-frames. Note that if TDM legacy support is not desired, thedownlink and uplink frames may include only IEEE 802.16m sub-frames.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of each of the pilotinserters 24 and 46 of FIG. 1 to insert pilot symbols among the datasymbols according to one embodiment of this disclosure. The method willbe described with reference to the pilot inserter 24 in the first OFDMcomponent 20; however, the method is equally applicable to the pilotinserter 46 of the second OFDM component 44. In this embodiment, theOFDM transmitter 10 is transmitting a downlink frame including one ormore modern sub-frames and only common pilots are inserted throughoutthe one or more modern sub-frames. For this discussion, the modernsub-frames may simply be referred to as sub-frames. Note that commonpilot symbols are pilot symbols in a multiple access environment thatare visible to all OFDM receivers and are primarily used only in thedownlink. In contrast, dedicated pilot symbols are pilot symbolsassigned to a particular OFDM receiver.

In operation, the pilot inserter 24 receives data symbols from thedemultiplexer 22 for the one or more sub-frames of the downlink frame(step 100), and receives encoded pilot symbols from the pilot STBCfunction 40 (step 102). The pilot STBC function 40 generates (orreceives) two pilot symbols and applies STBC encoding to the pilotsymbols so as to generate an STBC block of encoded pilot symbols. Theencoded pilot symbols generated for the first transmitting antenna 38will be one row of the STBC block and will have a number equal to thenumber of transmitting antennas in the OFDM transmitter 10. Thus, forthe two antenna OFDM transmitter 10 of FIG. 1, a 2×2 STBC block isgenerated.

The pilot inserter 24 inserts the encoded pilot symbols according to apredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern where either the pilotsymbol locations in the first sub-frame or the pilot symbol locations inthe last sub-frame are adjusted such that pilot symbol locations arelocated at or near a corresponding time boundary of the first or lastsub-frame (step 104). Note that, in an alternative embodiment, the pilotsymbol locations in both the first and last sub-frames may be adjusted.More specifically, in one embodiment, the predetermined staggered pilotsymbol pattern for the one or more sub-frames is defined such that thestaggered pilot symbol pattern is uniform in time beginning at or near astarting time boundary of the first sub-frame of the downlink frame andcontinuing to the next-to-last sub-frame of the downlink frame. In someembodiments, the uniform staggered pilot symbol pattern begins in thefirst or near the first OFDM symbol of the first sub-frame. For example,the uniform staggered pilot symbol pattern may begin at the first orsecond OFDM symbol of the first sub-frame. The pilot symbol locations inthe last sub-frame of the downlink frame are adjusted with respect tothe uniform pattern used in the other sub-frames of the downlink framesuch that (1) there are pilot symbol locations at or near an ending timeboundary of the last sub-frame of the downlink frame and (2) the pilotsymbol locations in the last sub-frame remain substantially uniform intime with respect to the pilot symbol locations in the other sub-framesof the downlink frame. Alternately or additionally, the staggered pilotsymbol pattern includes pilot symbol locations in the last ornext-to-last OFDM symbol of the last sub-frame.

In another embodiment, the predetermined staggered pilot symbol patternfor the one or more sub-frames is defined such that the pilot symbollocations in the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern is uniformin time from the second sub-frame through the last sub-frame of thedownlink frame and includes pilot symbol locations at or near an endingtime boundary of the last sub-frame of the downlink frame. At times, thelast pilot symbol locations in the predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern are in the last or next-to-last OFDM symbol of the lastsub-frame. The pilot symbol locations in the first sub-frame of thedownlink frame are adjusted with respect to the uniform pattern used inthe other sub-frames of the downlink frame such that (1) there are pilotsymbol locations at or near a starting time boundary of the firstsub-frame of the downlink frame and (2) the pilot symbol locations inthe first sub-frame remain substantially uniform in time with respect tothe pilot symbol locations in the other sub-frames of the downlinkframe. In some cases, for the first sub-frame, the staggered pilotsymbol pattern includes pilot symbol locations in the first or near thefirst OFDM symbol of the first sub-frame. For example, for the firstsub-frame, the staggered pilot symbol pattern may include pilot symbollocations in the first or second OFDM symbol of the first sub-frame.

Note that the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern may be afunction of the number of modern sub-frames in the downlink frame.Further, a density of the predetermined pilot symbol pattern may beinversely related to the number of modern sub-frames in the downlinkframe. Thus, when inserting the pilot symbols, the pilot inserter 24 mayfirst determine the number of modern sub-frames in the downlink frameand then insert the pilot symbols according to a predetermined staggeredpilot symbol pattern for that number of modern sub-frames. For example,a different pilot symbol pattern may be defined for one sub-frame, twosub-frames, three sub-frames, etc. As such, if there are two modernsub-frames in the downlink frame, the pilot inserter 24 may insert thepilots according to the predefined staggered pilot pattern for twosub-frames.

FIGS. 5A through 5J illustrate a number of exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that may be used by the pilot inserter 24 when operatingaccording to the process of FIG. 4. FIG. 5A illustrates a firstexemplary staggered pilot symbol pattern for a downlink frame having anumber of modern sub-frames, which are simply referred to as sub-framesfor this discussion. As illustrated, the staggered pilot symbol patternincludes a uniform portion that is uniform in time. The uniform portionof the staggered pilot symbol pattern begins at or near a starting timeboundary of the first sub-frame and continues through the next-to-lastsub-frame. Specifically, in this example, the staggered pilot symbolpattern begins at the first OFDM symbol of the first sub-frame. Then,the pilot symbol locations of the staggered pilot symbol pattern in thelast sub-frame have been adjusted such that (1) there are pilot symbollocations at or near an ending time boundary of the last sub-frame ofthe downlink frame and (2) the pilot symbol locations in the lastsub-frame remain substantially uniform in time with respect to the pilotsymbol locations in the other sub-frames of the downlink frame. In thisexample, the pilot symbol locations in the last sub-frame have beenadjusted such that there are pilot symbol locations in the last OFDMsymbol of the last sub-frame. More specifically, when compared to thepilot symbol locations in the other sub-frames, the first pilot symbollocations in the last sub-frame have been shifted from the first OFDMsymbol to the second OFDM symbol of the last sub-frame, and there is alarger time spacing between the pilot symbol locations in the lastsub-frame.

FIG. 5B illustrates a second exemplary staggered pilot symbol patternfor a downlink frame having a number of modern sub-frames, which aresimply referred to as sub-frames for this discussion. The staggeredpilot symbol pattern of FIG. 5B is similar to that of FIG. 5A. However,in FIG. 5B, the pilot symbol locations in the last sub-frame have beenadjusted by adding additional pilot symbol locations at or near theending time boundary of the last sub-frame. Specifically, in thisexample, additional pilot symbol locations have been included in thelast OFDM symbol of the last sub-frame.

FIG. 5C illustrates a third exemplary staggered pilot symbol pattern fora downlink frame having only one modern sub-frame in the downlink frame.Thus, when compared to the pilot symbol pattern in the first sub-framesin FIGS. 5A and 5B, the pilot symbol locations in the first/lastsub-frame in FIG. 5C have been adjusted by increasing the time offsetbetween the pilot symbol locations such that pilot symbols are locatedat both the starting and ending time boundaries of the first/lastsub-frame.

FIGS. 5D and 5E illustrate fourth and fifth exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that are similar to those illustrated in FIGS. 5A and5C, respectively. However, rather than defining pilot symbol locationsfor a single transmit antenna, the staggered pilot symbol patterns ofFIGS. 5D and 5E define pilot symbol locations for two transmit antennas.Each transmit antenna is allocated different pilot symbol locations.However, in an alternative embodiment, the pilot symbol locations forthe two transmit antennas may be the same, and Code DivisionMultiplexing (CDM) may be used to differentiate the pilot symbols forthe different antennas (i.e., a different spreading code may be used foreach antenna). Again, in both FIGS. 5D and 5E, for each transmitantenna, the pilot symbol locations in the last sub-frame are adjustedsuch that (1) there are pilot symbol locations at or near an ending timeboundary of the last sub-frame of the downlink frame and (2) the pilotsymbol locations in the last sub-frame remain substantially uniform intime with respect to the pilot symbol locations in the other sub-framesof the downlink frame.

FIGS. 5F and 5G illustrates sixth and seventh exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that are similar to those illustrated in FIGS. 5A and5C, respectively. However, in this embodiment, the staggered pilotsymbol pattern defines pilot symbol locations for four transmit antennasrather than one transmit antenna. Each transmit antenna is allocateddifferent pilot symbol locations. However, in an alternative embodiment,the pilot symbol locations for the four transmit antennas may be thesame, and CDM may be used to differentiate the pilot symbols for thedifferent antennas (i.e., a different spreading code may be used foreach antenna). Again, for each transmit antenna, the pilot symbollocations in the last sub-frame are adjusted such that (1) there arepilot symbol locations at or near an ending time boundary of the lastsub-frame of the downlink frame and (2) the pilot symbol locations inthe last sub-frame remain substantially uniform in time with respect tothe pilot symbol locations in the other sub-frames of the downlinkframe.

FIGS. 5H and 5I illustrates eighth and ninth exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that are similar to those illustrated in FIGS. 5F and5G, respectively, in that they define pilot symbol locations for fourtransmit antennas. However, the exemplary embodiments of FIGS. 5H and 5Iillustrate the concept that the spacing in frequency between pilotsymbol locations in the pilot symbol patterns for the antennas does nothave to be the same. Specifically, in this example, the pilot symbolpatterns for transmit antennas 1 and 2 have the same spacing infrequency, and the pilot symbol patterns for the transmit antennas 3 and4 have the same spacing in frequency. However, the spacing in frequencyfor transmit antennas 1 and 2 is different than the spacing in frequencyfor the transmit antennas 3 and 4. However, again, for each transmitantenna, the pilot symbol locations in the last sub-frame are adjustedsuch that (1) there are pilot symbol locations at or near an ending timeboundary of the last sub-frame of the downlink frame and (2) the pilotsymbol locations in the last sub-frame remain substantially uniform intime with respect to the pilot symbol locations in the other sub-framesof the downlink frame.

FIG. 5J illustrates a tenth exemplary staggered pilot symbol pattern forfour transmit antennas. Specifically, FIG. 5J illustrates an alternativeembodiment where the pilot symbol locations in the last two sub-frames,rather than the pilot symbol locations in only the last sub-frame, areadjusted such that (1) there are pilot symbol locations at or near anending time boundary of the last sub-frame of the downlink frame and (2)the pilot symbol locations in the last two sub-frames remainsubstantially uniform in time with respect to the pilot symbol locationsin the other sub-frames of the downlink frame. In another alternativeembodiment, the pilot symbol locations in the first two sub-frames,rather than the pilot symbol locations in only the first sub-frame, maybe adjusted.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator 76 of FIG. 2 according to one embodiment of this disclosure.This discussion is equally applicable to the channel estimator of thesecond OFDM component 58 of the OFDM receiver 50 of FIG. 2. In thisembodiment, the OFDM receiver 50 receives a downlink frame including oneor more modern sub-frames where only common pilots are used throughoutthe one or more modern sub-frames, which for this discussion are simplyreferred to as sub-frames. In operation, the channel estimator 76extracts the pilot symbols from the symbols, or more specifically symbolestimates, received from the FFT processor 70 according to thepredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern for the one or moresub-frames (step 200). If the pilot symbol pattern varies as a functionof the number of sub-frames, the channel estimator 76 may firstdetermine the number of sub-frames in the downlink frame and thenextract the pilot symbols according to the predetermined staggered pilotsymbol pattern used for that number of sub-frames.

The channel estimator 76 then generates channel estimates for eachsub-carrier frequency for each OFDM symbol in the one or more sub-framesbased on the extracted pilot symbols using known channel estimationtechniques (step 202). More specifically, for each extracted pilotsymbol, the channel estimator 76 may directly determine the channelresponse for the corresponding sub-carrier and OFDM symbol based on acomparison of the extracted pilot symbol and an expected pilot symbolknown to be transmitted by the OFDM transmitter 10. Then, channelresponses for the remaining sub-carrier and OFDM symbol combinations(i.e., the non-pilot symbol locations) in the one or more sub-frames areestimated using known interpolation and, if needed, extrapolationtechniques. Note, however, that by adjusting the pilot symbol locationsin the first or last sub-frame such that pilot symbols are included ator near the corresponding time boundary as discussed above, the numberof extrapolations needed for channel estimation is substantiallyreduced, if not eliminated, as compared to the number of extrapolationsneeded for previous staggered pilot patterns.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of each of the pilotinserters 24 and 46 of FIG. 1 to insert pilot symbols among the datasymbols according to another embodiment of this disclosure. The methodwill be described with reference to the pilot inserter 24 in the firstOFDM component 20; however, the method is equally applicable to thepilot inserter 46 of the second OFDM component 44. In this embodiment,the OFDM transmitter 10 is transmitting a downlink frame including oneor more legacy sub-frames and one or more modern sub-frames where onlycommon pilots are used throughout the one or more modern sub-frames. Ingeneral, the predetermined pilot symbol pattern defining the locationsat which pilots are to be inserted into the one or more modernsub-frames takes into account pilots included in a neighboring legacysub-frame. In this example, the neighboring legacy sub-frame is the lastlegacy sub-frame in the downlink frame. Further, as discussed below, theOFDM receiver 50 utilizes both pilots in the last legacy sub-frame andthe pilots in the one or more modern sub-frames to generate the channelestimates for the one or more modern sub-frames in a process referred toherein as joint channel estimation.

In operation, the pilot inserter 24 receives data symbols from thedemultiplexer 22 for the one or more modern sub-frames of the downlinkframe (step 300), and receives encoded pilot symbols from the pilot STBCfunction 40 (step 302). The pilot STBC function 40 generates (orreceives) two pilot symbols and applies STBC encoding to the pilotsymbols so as to generate an STBC block of encoded pilot symbols. Theencoded pilot symbols generated for the first transmitting antenna 38will be one row of the STBC block and will have a number equal to thenumber of transmitting antennas in the OFDM transmitter 10. Thus, forthe two antenna OFDM transmitter 10 of FIG. 1, a 2×2 STBC block isgenerated.

The pilot inserter 24 inserts the encoded pilot symbols into the one ormore modern sub-frames according to a predetermined staggered pilotsymbol pattern for joint channel estimation (step 304). In the casewhere the last legacy sub-frame precedes the first modern sub-frame inthe downlink frame, the pilot symbols in the last legacy sub-frame aretaken into account in the predetermined staggered pilot symbol patternfor the one or more modern sub-frames. Because at least some of thepilots from the last legacy sub-frame near the time boundary with thefirst modern sub-frame are to be used for joint channel estimation,there is no need for the predetermined staggered pilot symbol patternfor the one or more modern sub-frames to include common pilot symbollocations at or near the starting time boundary of the first modernsub-frame. As a result, the staggered pilot symbol pattern for the oneor more modern sub-frames may begin at a time offset from the startingtime boundary of the first modern sub-frame. In one embodiment, thestaggered pilot symbol pattern is uniform in time starting at the timeoffset from the starting time boundary of the first modern sub-frame andcontinuing through the last modern sub-frame, where the time offset issuch that the last pilot symbol locations in the staggered pilot symbolpattern are at or near an ending time boundary of the last modernsub-frame. In some embodiments, the pilot symbol locations at or nearthe ending time boundary of the last modern sub-frame are pilot symbollocations in the last or next-to-last OFDM symbol of the last modernsub-frame.

FIGS. 8A through 8E illustrate a number of exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that may be used by the pilot inserter 24 when operatingaccording to the process of FIG. 7. FIG. 8A illustrates a firstexemplary staggered pilot symbol pattern for joint channel estimation.As illustrated, the staggered pilot symbol pattern is uniform in timeand begins at a time offset from a starting time boundary of the firstmodern sub-frame. In this example, the time offset is such that thestaggered pilot symbol pattern for the modern sub-frames begins in thethird OFDM symbol of the first modern sub-frame. However, a differenttime offset may be used. In some embodiments, the time offset is greaterthan two OFDM symbols. The time offset is such that the final pilotsymbol locations in time are at or near the ending time boundary of thelast modern sub-frame. In this example, the final pilot symbol locationsin time are at the last OFDM symbol of the last modern sub-frame. Byusing the pilot symbols in the last legacy sub-frame and because thefinal pilot symbol locations are at or near the ending time boundary ofthe last sub-frame, extrapolations needed for channel estimation areoptimized.

FIGS. 8B and 8C illustrate second and third exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns for joint channel estimation. The embodiments of FIGS.8B and 8C are similar to that of FIG. 8A. However, rather thanillustrating a staggered pilot symbol pattern for a single transmitantenna, FIGS. 8B and 8C illustrate exemplary staggered pilot symbolpatterns for joint channel estimation for two and four transmitantennas, respectively. In an alternative embodiment, the pilot symbollocations for the different transmit antennas may be the same, and CDMmay be used to differentiate the pilot symbols for the differentantennas (i.e., a different spreading code may be used for eachantenna).

FIG. 8D illustrates a fourth exemplary staggered pilot symbol patternfor joint channel estimation that is similar to that illustrated in FIG.8C in that it defines pilot symbol locations for four transmit antennas.However, the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 8D illustrates the conceptthat the spacing in frequency between pilot symbol locations in thepilot symbol patterns for the antennas does not have to be the same.Specifically, in this example, the pilot symbol patterns for transmitantennas 1 and 2 have the same spacing in frequency, and the pilotsymbol patterns for transmit antennas 3 and 4 have the same spacing infrequency. However, the spacing in frequency for the transmit antennas 1and 2 is different than the spacing in frequency for the transmitantennas 3 and 4.

FIG. 8E illustrates a fifth exemplary staggered pilot symbol pattern forjoint channel estimation that is similar to that in FIG. 8A. However,FIG. 8E illustrates an alternative embodiment where in addition tohaving a time offset between the end of the last legacy sub-frame andthe start of the staggered pilot symbol pattern in the first modernsub-frame, the pilot symbol locations in the last modern sub-frame areadjusted such that the final pilot symbol locations for the last modernsub-frame are at or near the ending time boundary of the last modernsub-frame. Specifically, in this example, additional pilot symbollocations have been added in the last OFDM symbol of the last modernsub-frame. In another alternative embodiment, rather than addingadditional pilot symbol locations, the time spacing between the pilotsymbol locations in the first and fourth OFDM symbols of the last modernsub-frame may be increased by one or two OFDM symbol times such that thepilot symbol locations in the fourth OFDM symbol of the last modernsub-frame are shifted to the next-to-last or last OFDM symbol of thelast sub-frame.

FIG. 9 illustrates the operation of the channel estimator 76 of the OFDMreceiver 50 to perform joint channel estimation according to oneembodiment of this disclosure. This discussion is equally applicable tothe channel estimator of the second OFDM component 58 of the OFDMreceiver 50 of FIG. 2. In operation, the channel estimator 76 gets zonepartition information for the last legacy sub-frame of a receiveddownlink frame (step 400). Step 400 is specific to IEEE 802.16m. Asimilar step may be performed in other OFDM communication systems todetermine whether the last legacy sub-frame includes pilot symbols thatare to be used for joint channel estimation. The channel estimator 76then determines whether to perform joint channel estimation (step 402).For IEEE 802.16m, the channel estimator 76 makes a determination thatjoint channel estimation is to be performed if the zone partition forthe last legacy sub-frame is Partial Usage of Sub-Channels (PUSC) orFull Usage of Sub-Channels (FUSC).

If joint channel estimation is to be performed, the channel estimator 76extracts pilot symbols from the last legacy sub-frame and pilot symbolsfrom the one or more modern sub-frames according to a predeterminedstaggered pilot symbol pattern for joint channel estimation (step 404).The predetermined pilot symbol pattern may be a function of the numberof modern sub-frames in the downlink frame. For example, the density ofthe pilot symbol pattern may be inversely related to the number ofmodern sub-frames in the downlink frame. The channel estimator 76 thenperforms joint channel estimation based on at least some of the pilotsymbols from the last legacy sub-frame and the pilot symbols in the oneor more modern sub-frames (step 406). By using pilot symbols in the lastlegacy sub-frame, the channel responses for channels (i.e.,sub-carrier/OFDM symbol pairs) near the starting time boundary of thefirst modern sub-frame may be estimated using interpolation, rather thanextrapolation, thereby improving the accuracy of the estimates of thechannel responses.

Returning to step 402, if joint channel estimation is not to beperformed, the channel estimator 76 extracts pilot symbols from the oneor more modern sub-frames according to a predetermined pilot symbolpattern (step 408). For example, when joint channel estimation is not tobe performed, the predetermined pilot symbol pattern used for pilotinsertion at the OFDM transmitter 10 and pilot extraction at the OFDMreceiver 50 may be a staggered pilot symbol pattern such as thatdiscussed above with respect to FIGS. 4, 5A-5J, and 6. The channelestimator 76 then generates the channel estimates for eachsub-carrier/OFDM symbol pair based on the extracted pilot symbols usingknown techniques (step 410).

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of each of the pilotinserters 24 and 46 of FIG. 1 to insert pilot symbols among the datasymbols according to yet another embodiment of this disclosure. Themethod will be described with reference to the pilot inserter 24 in thefirst OFDM component 20; however, the method is equally applicable tothe pilot inserter 46 of the second OFDM component 44. In thisembodiment, the OFDM transmitter 10 is transmitting a downlink frameincluding one or more modern sub-frames, wherein only common pilots areused throughout the one or more modern sub-frames. In general, thepredetermined pilot symbol pattern defining the locations at whichpilots are to be inserted into the one or more modern sub-frames, whichfor this discussion are simply referred to as sub-frames, includes basicpilot symbol locations defining a basic staggered pilot symbol patternthat is uniform in time and a number of additional boundary pilot symbollocations at or near time and/or frequency boundaries of the one or moresub-frames.

In operation, the pilot inserter 24 receives data symbols from thedemultiplexer 22 for the one or more modern sub-frames of the downlinkframe (step 500), and receives encoded pilot symbols from the pilot STBCfunction 40 (step 502). The pilot STBC function 40 generates (orreceives) two pilot symbols and applies STBC encoding to the pilotsymbols so as to generate an STBC block of encoded pilot symbols. Theencoded pilot symbols generated for the first transmitting antenna 38will be one row of the STBC block and will have a number equal to thenumber of transmitting antennas in the OFDM transmitter 10. Thus, forthe two antenna OFDM transmitter 10 of FIG. 1, a 2×2 STBC block isgenerated.

The pilot inserter 24 inserts the encoded pilot symbols into the one ormore sub-frames according to a predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern including basic pilot symbol locations defining a uniform pilotsymbol pattern and a number of additional boundary pilot symbollocations at or near time and/or frequency boundaries of the one or moresub-frames (step 504). Note that the staggered pilot symbol pattern maybe a function of the number of sub-frames in the one or more sub-frames.For instance, the density of the staggered pilot symbol pattern may beinversely related to the number of sub-frames in the one or moresub-frames. In some cases, additional boundary pilot symbol locations ator near the time boundaries of the one or more sub-frames include pilotsymbol locations in the first or near the first OFDM symbol of the firstsub-frame, pilot symbol locations in the last or next-to-last OFDMsymbol of the last sub-frame, or both. Likewise, additional boundarypilot symbol locations at or near the frequency boundaries of the one ormore sub-frames can include pilot symbol locations at a first, second,or third sub-carrier frequency within at least some of the one or moresub-frames, pilot symbol locations at a last sub-carrier, next-to-lastsub-carrier, or second-to-last sub-carrier frequency within at leastsome of the one or more sub-frames, or both.

Note that, in one embodiment, a power boost may be applied to the pilotsymbols. In order to avoid interference between these power boostedpilot symbols in neighboring sectors of the communication system, eachsector may apply a different frequency offset to the predeterminedstaggered pilot symbol location. In another embodiment, a power boostmay be applied to all pilot symbols except pilot symbols in anyadditional frequency boundary pilot symbol locations. As such, eachsector may apply a different frequency offset to all pilot symbollocations within the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern otherthan the pilot symbols in the additional frequency boundary pilot symbollocations.

FIGS. 11A through 11F illustrate a number of exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that may be used by the pilot inserter 24 when operatingaccording to the process of FIG. 10. FIG. 11A illustrates a firstexemplary staggered pilot symbol pattern including basic pilot symbollocations defining a uniform staggered pilot symbol pattern andadditional boundary pilot symbol locations at or near time and frequencyboundaries of a sub-frame. The additional boundary pilot symbollocations are at or near time and frequency boundaries of the sub-frame.As a result of the additional boundary pilot locations, the number ofextrapolations needed for channel estimation is substantially reduced ifnot eliminated.

FIG. 11A also illustrates the concept that the pilot symbol patterns fordifferent sectors of a cell in an IEEE 802.16m communications system, orthe like, may be offset in frequency. Thus, in this example, the pilotsymbol locations for the second sector are offset by one sub-carrierfrom the pilot symbol locations for the first sector, and the pilotsymbol locations for the third sector are offset by one sub-carrier fromthe pilot symbol locations for the second sector.

FIGS. 11B and 11C illustrate second and third exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns including basic pilot symbol locations defining auniform staggered pilot symbol pattern and additional boundary pilotsymbol locations at or near time and frequency boundaries of asub-frame. The embodiments of FIGS. 11B and 11C are similar to that ofFIG. 11A. However, rather than illustrating a staggered pilot symbolpattern for a single transmit antenna, FIGS. 11B and 11C illustrateexemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for two and four transmitantennas, respectively. In an alternative embodiment, the pilot symbollocations for the different transmit antennas may be the same, and CDMmay be used to differentiate the pilot symbols for the differentantennas (i.e., a different spreading code may be used for eachantenna).

FIG. 11D illustrates a fourth exemplary staggered pilot symbol patternincluding basic pilot symbol locations defining a uniform staggeredpilot symbol pattern and additional boundary pilot symbol locations ator near time and frequency boundaries of a number of sub-frames. Theembodiment of FIG. 11D is similar to that of FIG. 11A. However, ratherthan illustrating a staggered pilot symbol pattern for a singlesub-frame, FIG. 11D illustrates an exemplary staggered pilot symbolpattern for multiple sub-frames for two transmit antennas. This mayparticularly be beneficial for a downlink frame including one or moremodern sub-frames having common pilot symbols.

FIG. 11E illustrates a fifth exemplary staggered pilot symbol patternincluding basic pilot symbol locations defining a uniform staggeredpilot symbol pattern and additional boundary pilot symbol locations ator near time and frequency boundaries of a number of sub-frames. Theembodiment of FIG. 11E is similar to that of FIG. 11D. However, ratherthan illustrating a staggered pilot symbol pattern for two transmitantennas, FIG. 11E illustrates an exemplary staggered pilot symbolpattern for four transmit antennas. Again, in an alternative embodiment,the pilot symbol locations for the four transmit antennas may be thesame, and CDM may be used to differentiate the pilot symbols for thedifferent antennas (i.e., a different spreading code may be used foreach antenna).

FIG. 11F illustrates a sixth exemplary staggered pilot symbol patternincluding basic pilot symbol locations defining a uniform staggeredpilot symbol pattern and additional boundary pilot symbol locations ator near time and frequency boundaries of the number of sub-frames. Thisembodiment similar to that of FIG. 11B. However, in this embodiment, apower boost is applied to all pilot symbols except those in theadditional frequency boundary pilot symbol locations. As such, eachsector has the same frequency boundary pilot symbol locations (i.e.,there is not need for each sector to apply a different frequency offsetto the frequency boundary pilot symbol locations).

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator 76 of FIG. 2 according to yet another embodiment of thisdisclosure. This discussion is equally applicable to the channelestimator of the second OFDM component 58 of the OFDM receiver 50 ofFIG. 2. In this embodiment, the OFDM receiver 50 receives a downlinkframe including one or more sub-frames having pilots inserted thereinbased on a staggered pilot symbol pattern including basic pilot symbollocations defining a uniform basic pilot symbol pattern and additionalboundary pilot symbol locations at or near time and/or frequencyboundaries of the one or more sub-frames.

In operation, the channel estimator 76 extracts the pilot symbols fromthe symbols, or more specifically symbol estimates, received from theFFT processor 70 according to the predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern for the one or more sub-frames (step 600). If the pilot symbolpattern varies as a function of the number of sub-frames, the channelestimator 76 may first determine the number of sub-frames and thenextract the pilot symbols according to the predetermined staggered pilotsymbol pattern used for that number of sub-frames.

The channel estimator 76 then generates channel estimates for eachsub-carrier frequency and OFDM symbol pair in the one or more sub-framesbased on the extracted pilot symbols using known channel estimationtechniques (step 602). More specifically, for each extracted pilotsymbol, the channel estimator 76 may directly determine the channelresponse for the corresponding sub-carrier and OFDM symbol based on acomparison of the extracted pilot symbol and an expected pilot symbolknown to be transmitted by the OFDM transmitter 10. Then, channelresponses for the remaining sub-carrier and OFDM symbol combinations(i.e., the non-pilot symbol locations) in the one or more sub-frames areestimated using known interpolation and, if needed, extrapolationtechniques. Note, however, that the number of extrapolations needed forchannel estimation is substantially reduced, if not eliminated, ascompared to the number of extrapolations needed for previous staggeredpilot patterns as a result of the additional boundary pilot symbollocations.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of each of the pilotinserters 24 and 46 of FIG. 1 to insert pilot symbols among the datasymbols in a resource unit according to yet another embodiment of thisdisclosure. The method will be described with reference to the pilotinserter 24 in the first OFDM component 20; however, the method isequally applicable to the pilot inserter 46 of the second OFDM component44. In this embodiment, the OFDM transmitter 10 is transmitting data ina resource unit of either a downlink or uplink frame (generally referredto herein as a transmit frame). The resource unit is a portion of thetransmit frame. More specifically, the resource unit may be a sub-frame,a portion of one sub-frame, or contiguous portions of one or moreneighboring sub-frames. Pilot symbols inserted into the resource unitmay be common pilots or dedicated pilots.

In operation, the pilot inserter 24 receives data symbols from thedemultiplexer 22 for the resource unit of the transmit frame (step 700),and receives encoded pilot symbols from the pilot STBC function 40 (step702). The pilot STBC function 40 generates (or receives) two pilotsymbols and applies STBC encoding to the pilot symbols so as to generatean STBC block of encoded pilot symbols. The encoded pilot symbolsgenerated for the first transmitting antenna 38 will be one row of theSTBC block and will have a number equal to the number of transmittingantennas in the OFDM transmitter 10. Thus, for the two antenna OFDMtransmitter 10 of FIG. 1, a 2×2 STBC block is generated.

The pilot inserter 24 inserts the encoded pilot symbols into theresource unit according to a predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern for the resource unit (step 704). The predetermined staggeredpilot symbol pattern includes pilot symbol locations at or near timeboundaries of the resource unit, at or near both frequency boundaries ofthe resource unit, or pilot symbol locations at or near both the timeboundaries and the frequency boundaries of the resource unit. In thisembodiment, a pilot symbol location can be at or near a time boundary ofthe resource unit if the pilot symbol location is in the first or nearthe first OFDM symbol from the time boundary, and a pilot symbollocation is at or near a frequency boundary of the resource unit if thepilot symbol location is in the first or near the first sub-carrier fromthe frequency boundary. For example, a pilot symbol location may beconsidered to be at or near a time boundary of the resource unit if thepilot symbol location is in the first or second OFDM symbol from thetime boundary. Likewise, for example, a pilot symbol location may beconsidered to be at or near a frequency boundary of the resource unit ifthe pilot symbol location is in the first or second sub-carrier from thefrequency boundary.

In one embodiment, the size of the resource unit may vary, and thepredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern is a function of the sizeof the resource unit. For instance, a density of the staggered pilotsymbol pattern can be inversely related to the size of the resourceunit. The size of the resource unit is related to a number of symbollocations within the resource unit. In one embodiment, a basic resourceblock corresponding to a minimum allocable resource unit may be defined.For example, the basic resource block may be a 6 symbol by 4 sub-carrierblock of symbol locations. The size of the resource unit may then bedefined as a number of basic resource blocks. For example, the resourceunit may be one resource block, two resource blocks, etc. A differentstaggered pilot symbol pattern may be defined for each of a number ofresource unit sizes. Then, the pilot inserter 24 determines thestaggered pilot symbol pattern to be used based on the size of theresource unit.

FIGS. 14A through 14H illustrate a number of exemplary staggered pilotsymbol patterns that may be used by the pilot inserter 24 when operatingaccording to the process of FIG. 13. FIG. 14A illustrates firstexemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for a resource unit for onetransmit antenna, two transmit antennas, and four transmit antennas. Asillustrated, the staggered pilot symbol patterns include pilot symbollocations at or near the time and frequency boundaries of the resourceunit for each transmit antenna. Note that, in an alternative embodiment,the pilot symbol locations for the different transmit antennas may bethe same, and CDM may be used to differentiate the pilot symbols for thedifferent antennas (i.e., a different spreading code may be used foreach antenna).

FIG. 14B illustrates second exemplary staggered pilot symbol patternsfor a resource unit for one transmit antenna, two transmit antennas, andfour transmit antennas. Again, the staggered pilot symbol patternsinclude pilot symbol locations at or near the time and frequencyboundaries of the resource unit for each transmit antenna. FIG. 14Cillustrates third exemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for aresource unit for one transmit antenna, two transmit antennas, and fourtransmit antennas. Again, the staggered pilot symbol patterns includepilot symbol locations at or near the time and frequency boundaries ofthe resource unit for each transmit antenna.

FIG. 14D illustrates exemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for one,two, and four transmit antennas for a resource unit that is twice thesize of the resource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C. Specifically, theresource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C is a 6 symbol by 12 sub-carrierblock of symbol locations. In contrast, the resource unit of FIG. 14D is6 symbols by 24 sub-carriers. Note that because the size of the resourceunit has increased as compared to that of FIGS. 14A through 14C, thedensity of the staggered pilot symbol pattern of FIG. 14D has decreased.

FIG. 14E illustrates exemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for one,two, and four transmit antennas for a resource unit that is twice thesize of the resource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C. Specifically, theresource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C is a 6 symbol by 12 sub-carrierblock of symbol locations. In contrast, the resource unit of FIG. 14E is12 symbols by 12 sub-carriers. As such, if a sub-frame of the transmitframe is 6 symbols, the resource unit of FIG. 14E is a contiguousresource unit that spans two neighboring sub-frames. Note that becausethe size of the resource unit has increased as compared to that of FIGS.14A through 14C, the density of the staggered pilot symbol pattern ofFIG. 14E has decreased.

FIG. 14F illustrates exemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for one,two, and four transmit antennas for a resource unit that is three timesthe size of the resource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C. Specifically,the resource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C is a 6 symbol by 12sub-carrier block of symbol locations. In contrast, the resource unit ofFIG. 14F is 6 symbols by 36 sub-carriers. Note that because the size ofthe resource unit has increased as compared to that of FIG. 14D, thedensity of the staggered pilot symbol pattern of FIG. 14F has furtherdecreased.

FIG. 14G illustrates exemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for one,two, and four transmit antennas for a resource unit that is three timesthe size of the resource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C. Specifically,the resource unit of FIGS. 14A through 14C is a 6 symbol by 12sub-carrier block of symbol locations. In contrast, the resource unit ofFIG. 14G is 18 symbols by 12 sub-carriers. As such, if a sub-frame ofthe transmit frame is 6 symbols, the resource unit of FIG. 14G is acontiguous resource unit that spans three neighboring sub-frames. Notethat because the size of the resource unit has increased as compared tothat of FIG. 14E, the density of the staggered pilot symbol pattern ofFIG. 14G has further decreased.

FIG. 14H illustrates exemplary staggered pilot symbol patterns for a 6symbol by 16 sub-carrier resource unit, a 12 symbol by 16 sub-carrierresource unit, and a 6N by 16 sub-carrier resource unit. This mayparticularly be the case for an uplink frame where an OFDM transmitter10 of a particular mobile station, or user equipment device, isallocated continuous resources in one or more sub-frames of the uplinkframe. Note that, in this case, the pilots inserted into the resourceblock may be dedicated pilot symbols specific to the OFDM transmitter10. As illustrated in FIG. 14H, as the size of the resource unitincreases, the density of the staggered pilot symbol pattern decreases.

FIGS. 15A and 15B graphically illustrate the design of the predeterminedstaggered pilot symbol patterns for a number of different resource unitsizes according to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure. Asillustrated in FIG. 15A, a staggered pilot pattern is defined for afirst resource unit size, which may be the smallest resource unit size.Next, the staggered pilot symbol pattern is extended for a secondresource unit size that is twice that of the first resource unit size,wherein redundant or unnecessary pilot symbol locations are removedwhile keeping the staggered pilot symbol pattern substantially uniform.Then, the staggered pilot symbol pattern is further extended for a thirdresource unit size that is three times that of the first resource unitsize, wherein redundant or unnecessary pilot symbols are removed whilekeeping the staggered pilot symbol pattern substantially uniform. Theprocess continues such that staggered pilot symbol patterns are definedfor each of a number of resource unit sizes. FIG. 15B illustrates asimilar process that begins with a staggered pilot symbol pattern for alargest resource unit size, rather than the smallest resource unit size.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator 76 of FIG. 2 according to yet another embodiment of thisdisclosure. This discussion is equally applicable to the channelestimator of the second OFDM component 58 of the OFDM receiver 50 ofFIG. 2. In this embodiment, the OFDM receiver 50 receives a transmitframe including a resource unit having pilots inserted therein based ona staggered pilot symbol pattern for the resource unit.

In operation, the channel estimator 76 extracts the pilot symbolsinserted into the resource unit from the symbols, or more specificallysymbol estimates, received from the FFT processor 70 according to thepredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern for the resource unit (step800). If the resource unit varies in size, the channel estimator 76 maydetermine the size of the resource unit and then extract the pilotsymbols from the resource unit according to the predetermined staggeredpilot symbol pattern for a resource unit of that size. The channelestimator 76 then generates channel estimates for each sub-carrierfrequency for each OFDM symbol in the resource unit based on theextracted pilot symbols using known channel estimation techniques (step802). More specifically, for each extracted pilot symbol, the channelestimator 76 may directly determine the channel response for thecorresponding sub-carrier and OFDM symbol based on a comparison of theextracted pilot symbol and an expected pilot symbol known to betransmitted by the OFDM transmitter 10. Then, channel responses for theremaining sub-carrier and OFDM symbol combinations (i.e., the non-pilotsymbol locations) in the resource unit are estimated using knowninterpolation and, if needed, extrapolation techniques. Since thestaggered pilot symbol pattern for the resource unit is designed to havepilot symbol locations at or near the time and/or frequency boundariesof the resource unit, the number of extrapolations needed for channelestimation is substantially reduced, if not eliminated, as compared tothat needed for previous pilot patterns.

FIGS. 17-21 describe an embodiment of the disclosure that is similar tothat described above with respect to FIGS. 13-16. However, theembodiment of FIGS. 17-21 relate to pilot symbol patterns for an uplinkframe in IEEE 802.16m having Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)legacy support. In an uplink frame having FDM legacy support, legacyresource units are first allocated in the uplink frame. Then, modernresource units, which in this embodiment are IEEE 802.16m resourceunits, are allocated using the remaining resources of the uplink frame.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of each of the pilotinserters 24 and 46 of FIG. 1 to insert pilot symbols among the datasymbols in a resource unit allocated in an IEEE 802.16m uplink framehaving legacy FDM support according to yet another embodiment of thisdisclosure. The method will be described with reference to the pilotinserter 24 in the first OFDM component 20. However, the method isequally applicable to the pilot inserter 46 of the second OFDM component44. Further, while this discussion focuses on the uplink frame havinglegacy FDM support for IEEE 802.16m, this process is also applicable toany transmit frame in an OFDM communication system having legacy FDMsupport. The resource unit is a portion of the uplink frame allocated tothe OFDM transmitter 10. More specifically, the resource unit may be asub-frame, a portion of one sub-frame, or contiguous portions of one ormore neighboring sub-frames. In this embodiment, the pilot symbolsinserted into the resource unit are dedicated pilot symbols.

In operation, the pilot inserter 24 receives data symbols from thedemultiplexer 22 for the resource unit of the transmit frame (step 900),and receives encoded pilot symbols from the pilot STBC function 40 (step902). The pilot STBC function 40 generates (or receives) two pilotsymbols and applies STBC encoding to the pilot symbols so as to generatean STBC block of encoded pilot symbols. The encoded pilot symbolsgenerated for the first transmitting antenna 38 will be one row of theSTBC block and will have a number equal to the number of transmittingantennas in the OFDM transmitter 10. Thus, for the two antenna OFDMtransmitter 10 of FIG. 1, a 2×2 STBC block is generated.

The pilot inserter 24 inserts the encoded pilot symbols into theresource unit according to a predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern for the resource unit in the uplink frame having legacy FDMsupport (step 904). The predetermined staggered pilot symbol patternincludes pilot symbol locations at or near both time boundaries of theresource unit, at or near both frequency boundaries of the resourceunit, or pilot symbol locations at or near both the time boundaries andthe frequency boundaries of the resource unit. In some cases, a pilotsymbol location is at or near a time boundary of the resource unit ifthe pilot symbol location is in the first or near the first OFDM symbolfrom the time boundary, and a pilot symbol location is at or near afrequency boundary of the resource unit if the pilot symbol location isin the first or near the first sub-carrier from the frequency boundary.Again, for example, a pilot symbol location may be considered to be ator near a time boundary of the resource unit if the pilot symbollocation is in the first or second OFDM symbol from the time boundary.Likewise, for example, a pilot symbol location may be considered to beat or near a frequency boundary of the resource unit if the pilot symbollocation is in the first or second sub-carrier from the frequencyboundary.

In one embodiment, the size of the resource unit may vary, and thepredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern is a function of the sizeof the resource unit. At times, a density of the staggered pilot symbolpattern is inversely related to the size of the resource unit. The sizeof the resource unit is related to a number of symbol locations withinthe resource unit. In one embodiment, for an uplink frame having legacyFDM support, the size of the resource unit is a multiple of a size of alegacy resource unit. For example, the resource unit may be the samesize as the legacy resource unit, two times the size of the legacyresource unit, etc. A different staggered pilot symbol pattern may bedefined for each of a number of sizes of resource units. Then, the pilotinserter 24 determines the staggered pilot symbol pattern to be usedbased on the size of the resource unit for the transmission.

In one embodiment, the legacy resource unit is a 3 symbol by 4sub-carrier block within the uplink frame. FIG. 18A illustrates anexemplary modern resource unit, or resource unit, that is two times thesize of the legacy resource unit. FIG. 18B illustrates an exemplarymodern resource unit, or resource unit, that is three times the size ofthe legacy resource unit. While only the exemplary resource units ofFIGS. 18A and 18B are illustrated, resource units having sizes of largermultiples of the size of the legacy sub-frame may be used.

FIG. 19 illustrates a number of exemplary pilot symbol patterns for theresource unit of FIG. 18A. Each of these exemplary pilot symbol patternsincludes pilot symbol locations at or near the time and/or frequencyboundaries of the resource unit, thereby reducing, if not eliminating,the need for extrapolations when performing channel estimation for theresource unit. FIG. 20 illustrates a number of exemplary pilot symbolpatterns for the resource unit of FIG. 18B. Each of these exemplarypilot symbol patterns includes pilot symbol locations at or near thetime and/or frequency boundaries of the resource unit, thereby reducing,if not eliminating, the need for extrapolations when performing channelestimation for the resource unit. Note that the density of the pilotpatterns of FIG. 20 are reduced as a compared to the density of thepilot patterns of FIG. 19 as a result of the increase in the size of theresource unit.

FIG. 21 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the channelestimator 76 of FIG. 2 according to yet another embodiment of thisdisclosure. This discussion is equally applicable to the channelestimator of the second OFDM component 58 of the OFDM receiver 50 ofFIG. 2. In this embodiment, the OFDM receiver 50 receives an uplinkframe having FDM legacy support as described above. For each modernresource unit in the uplink frame, the channel estimator 76 extracts thepilot symbols inserted into the resource unit from the symbols, and morespecifically symbol estimates, received from the FFT processor 70according to the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern for theresource unit (step 1000). If the resource unit varies in size, thechannel estimator 76 may determine the size of the resource unit andthen extract the pilot symbols from the resource unit according to thepredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern for a resource unit of thatsize.

The channel estimator 76 then generates channel estimates for eachsub-carrier frequency for each OFDM symbol in the resource unit based onthe extracted pilot symbols using known channel estimation techniques(step 1002). More specifically, for each extracted pilot symbol, thechannel estimator 76 may directly determine the channel response for thecorresponding sub-carrier and OFDM symbol based on a comparison of theextracted pilot symbol and an expected pilot symbol known to betransmitted by the OFDM transmitter 10. Then, channel responses for theremaining sub-carrier and OFDM symbol combinations (i.e., the non-pilotsymbol locations) in the resource unit are estimated using knowninterpolation and, if needed, extrapolation techniques. Since thestaggered pilot symbol pattern for the resource unit is designed to havepilot symbol locations at or near the time and/or frequency boundariesof the resource unit, the number of extrapolations needed for channelestimation is substantially reduced, if not eliminated, as compared tothat needed for previous pilot patterns.

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto various embodiments described herein. All such improvements andmodifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosedherein and the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. An Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing(OFDM) receiver comprising: receiver circuitry configured to: receive atleast one transmit frame associated with an OFDM signal, the at leastone transmit frame comprising: one or more modern sub-frames; and one ormore legacy sub-frames, wherein at least one legacy sub-frame neighborsa modern sub-frame of the one or more modern sub-frames; and process theat least one transmit frame effective to generate one or more symbolestimates; and a channel estimator implemented, at least in part, inhardware and configured to: receive the one or more symbol estimates;extract, from the one or more symbol estimates, at least one pilotsymbol from the at least one legacy sub-frame; extract, from the one ormore modern sub-frames, at least one pilot symbol according to apredetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern for the one or more modernsub-frames; and generate channel estimates for the one or more modernsub-frames based on the at least one pilot symbol extracted from the oneor more modern sub-frames and the at least one pilot symbol extractedfrom the at least one legacy sub-frame.
 2. The OFDM receiver of claim 1wherein the at least one legacy sub-frame that neighbors the modernsub-frame precedes the one or more modern sub-frames in the transmitframe, and the modern sub-frame neighboring the at least one legacysub-frame is a first modern sub-frame of the one or more modernsub-frames in the transmit frame.
 3. The OFDM receiver of claim 2wherein the predetermined staggered pilot symbol pattern begins at atime offset from a starting time boundary of the first modern sub-frame,the time offset being greater than two OFDM symbols.
 4. The OFDMreceiver of claim 3 wherein the predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern is a uniform pilot symbol pattern starting after the time offsetfrom the starting time boundary of the first sub-frame.
 5. The OFDMreceiver of claim 4 wherein the time offset is such that last pilotsymbol locations defined by the predetermined staggered pilot symbolpattern are at or near an ending time boundary of a last modernsub-frame.
 6. The OFDM receiver of claim 1, wherein the OFDM receivercomprises a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) OFDM receiver.
 7. TheOFDM receiver of claim 1, wherein the channel estimator is furtherconfigured to determine whether to perform joint channel estimationbased, at least in part, on the one or more legacy sub-frames.
 8. TheOFDM receiver of claim 1, wherein: the at least one legacy sub-frame isin a form of a time-frequency grid having respective minimum and maximumfrequency boundaries and having respective minimum and maximum temporalboundaries; the one or more modern sub-frames are each in a form of atime-frequency grid having respective minimum and maximum frequencyboundaries and having respective minimum and maximum temporalboundaries, the minimum and maximum frequency boundaries of the one ormore modern sub-frame substantially aligning with those of the at leastone legacy sub-frame; the at least one pilot symbol extracted from theat least one legacy sub-frame borders the respective minimum frequencyboundary of the at least one legacy sub-frame; at least one pilot symbolextracted from the one or more modern sub-frames borders the respectiveminimum frequency boundary of the modern sub-frame from which it wasextracted; and said generating of the channel estimates for the one ormore modern sub-frames is based on the extracted pilot symbols borderingthe respective minimum frequency boundaries of their respective at leastone legacy sub-frame and respective one or more modern sub-framesborders.
 9. The OFDM receiver of claim 8, wherein: there is at least oneother pilot symbol extracted from the at least one legacy sub-framewhich borders the respective maximum frequency boundary of the at leastone legacy sub-frame; there is at least one other pilot symbol extractedfrom the one or more modern sub-frames borders which borders therespective maximum frequency boundary of the modern sub-frame from whichit was extracted; and said generating of the channel estimates for theone or more modern sub-frames is further based on the extracted pilotsymbols bordering the respective maximum frequency boundaries of theirrespective at least one legacy sub-frame and respective one or moremodern sub-frames borders.
 10. The OFDM receiver of claim 1, wherein:the at least one legacy sub-frame is in a form of a time-frequency gridhaving respective minimum and maximum frequency boundaries and havingrespective minimum and maximum temporal boundaries; the one or moremodern sub-frames are each in a form of a time-frequency grid havingrespective minimum and maximum frequency boundaries and havingrespective minimum and maximum temporal boundaries, the minimum andmaximum frequency boundaries of the one or more modern sub-framesubstantially aligning with those of the at least one legacy sub-frame;the at least one pilot symbol extracted from the at least one legacysub-frame borders the respective maximum frequency boundary of the atleast one legacy sub-frame; at least one pilot symbol extracted from theone or more modern sub-frames borders the respective maximum frequencyboundary of the modern sub-frame from which it was extracted; and saidgenerating of the channel estimates for the one or more modernsub-frames is based on the extracted pilot symbols bordering therespective minimum frequency boundaries of their respective at least onelegacy sub-frame and respective one or more modern sub-frames borders.11. The OFDM receiver of claim 1, wherein: the at least one pilot symbolextracted from the at least one legacy sub-frame is in a last temporalsymbol row of the respective at least one legacy sub-frame from which itis extracted.
 12. The OFDM receiver of claim 11, wherein: there is atleast one relatively recent pilot symbol extracted from a last of theone or more modern sub-frames where the at least one relatively recentpilot symbol is in a last temporal symbol row of the respective last ofthe one or more modern sub-frames; and said generating of the channelestimates for the one or more modern sub-frames is based on theextracted pilot symbols in the respective last temporal symbol rows ofthe respective at least one legacy sub-frame and respective last of theone or more modern sub-frames.
 13. A radio receiver comprising: at leasttwo antenna each coupled to a respective signal processing componentthat is configured to process time-frequency signals received by therespective antenna over a respective wireless transmission channel;wherein the received time-frequency signals are each in a form of aframe having one or more modern sub-frames and one or more legacysub-frames, wherein at least one legacy sub-frame neighbors a modernsub-frame of the one or more modern sub-frames, and where the at leastone legacy sub-frame is in a form of a time-frequency grid havingrespective minimum and maximum frequency boundaries and havingrespective minimum and maximum temporal boundaries, and the one or moremodern sub-frames are each in a form of a time-frequency grid havingrespective minimum and maximum frequency boundaries and havingrespective minimum and maximum temporal boundaries, the respectiveminimum and maximum frequency boundaries of the one or more modernsub-frames substantially aligning with those of the at least one legacysub-frame; wherein each respective signal processing component of theradio receiver includes a respective channel estimator configured todetermine current estimated characteristics of its respective wirelesstransmission channel based on one or more legacy pilot symbols thatpartially populate the one or more legacy sub-frames and based on one ormore modern pilot symbols that partially populate the one or more modernsub-frames of its respectively received time-frequency signals.
 14. Theradio receiver of claim 13 wherein: the respective wireless transmissionchannels of the respective at least two antenna are subject to multipathtransmission effects and the respective channel estimators areconfigured to determine temporal compensations for extracted symbols ofthe respective wireless transmission channels based on interpolation asbetween sample points defined by two or more of the extracted pilotsymbols.
 15. The radio receiver of claim 13 wherein: the respectivewireless transmission channels of the respective at least two antennaare subject to Doppler shift transmission effects and the respectivechannel estimators are configured to determine frequency shiftcompensations for extracted symbols of the respective wirelesstransmission channels based on interpolation as between sample pointsdefined by two or more of the extracted pilot symbols.
 16. The radioreceiver of claim 15 wherein: the determined compensations are not basedon extrapolation outside a range between the sample points defined bysaid two or more of the extracted pilot symbols.
 17. The radio receiverof claim 13 wherein: the at least one pilot symbol extracted from the atleast one legacy sub-frame borders the respective minimum frequencyboundary of the at least one legacy sub-frame; at least one pilot symbolextracted from the one or more modern sub-frames borders the respectiveminimum frequency boundary of the modern sub-frame from which it wasextracted; and said determining of the current estimated characteristicsof each respective wireless transmission channel by the correspondingchannel estimator is based on the extracted pilot symbols bordering therespective minimum frequency boundaries of their respective at least onelegacy sub-frame and respective one or more modern sub-frames borders.18. The radio receiver of claim 13 wherein: the at least one pilotsymbol extracted from the at least one legacy sub-frame is in a lasttemporal symbol row of the respective at least one legacy sub-frame fromwhich it is extracted; there is at least one relatively recent pilotsymbol extracted from a last of the one or more modern sub-frames wherethe at least one relatively recent pilot symbol is in a last temporalsymbol row of the respective last of the one or more modern sub-frames;and said determining of the current estimated characteristics of eachrespective wireless transmission channel by the corresponding channelestimator is based on the extracted pilot symbols in the respective lasttemporal symbol rows of the respective at least one legacy sub-frame andrespective last of the one or more modern sub-frames.
 19. A method ofoperating a radio receiver wherein: the radio receiver has at least twoantenna each coupled to a respective signal processing component that isconfigured to process time-frequency signals received by the respectiveantenna over a respective wireless transmission channel; wherein thereceived time-frequency signals are each in a form of a frame having oneor more modern sub-frames and one or more legacy sub-frames, wherein atleast one legacy sub-frame neighbors a modern sub-frame of the one ormore modern sub-frames, and where the at least one legacy sub-frame isin a form of a time-frequency grid having respective minimum and maximumfrequency boundaries and having respective minimum and maximum temporalboundaries, and the one or more modern sub-frames are each in a form ofa time-frequency grid having respective minimum and maximum frequencyboundaries and having respective minimum and maximum temporalboundaries, the respective minimum and maximum frequency boundaries ofthe one or more modern sub-frames substantially aligning with those ofthe at least one legacy sub-frame; wherein each respective signalprocessing component of the radio receiver includes a respective channelestimator; the method comprising: causing each channel estimator todetermine current estimated characteristics of its respective wirelesstransmission channel based on one or more legacy pilot symbols thatpartially populate the one or more legacy sub-frames and based on one ormore modern pilot symbols that partially populate the one or more modernsub-frames of its respectively received time-frequency signals.
 20. Themethod of claim 19 wherein: the at least one pilot symbol extracted fromthe at least one legacy sub-frame is in a last temporal symbol row ofthe respective at least one legacy sub-frame from which it is extracted;there is at least one relatively recent pilot symbol extracted from alast of the one or more modern sub-frames where the at least onerelatively recent pilot symbol is in a last temporal symbol row of therespective last of the one or more modern sub-frames; and said causeddetermining of the current estimated characteristics of each respectivewireless transmission channel by the corresponding channel estimator isbased on the extracted pilot symbols in the respective last temporalsymbol rows of the respective at least one legacy sub-frame andrespective last of the one or more modern sub-frames.